NOW Christ again appears to the view of His
enemies. Far above the city, upon a foundation of burnished gold, is a throne, high and
lifted up. Upon this throne sits the Son of God, and around Him are the subjects of His
kingdom. The power and majesty of Christ no language can describe, no pen portray. The
glory of the Eternal Father is enshrouding His Son. The brightness of His presence fills
the city of God and flows out beyond the gates, flooding the whole earth with its
radiance.

Nearest the throne are those
who were once zealous in the cause of Satan, but who, plucked as brands from the burning,
have followed their Saviour with deep, intense devotion. Next are those who perfected
Christian characters in the midst of falsehood and infidelity, those who honored the law
of God when the Christian world declared it void, and the millions, of all ages, who were
martyred for their faith. And beyond is the "great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, . . . before the throne,
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." Rev. 7:9.
Their warfare is ended, their victory won. They have run the race and reached the prize.
The palm branch in their hands is a symbol of their

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triumph, the white robe an emblem of
the spotless righteousness of Christ, which now is theirs.

The redeemed raise a song of
praise that echoes and re-echoes through the vaults of heaven, "Salvation to our God
which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." And angel and seraph unite their
voices in adoration. As the redeemed have beheld the power and malignity of Satan, they
have seen, as never before, that no power but that of Christ could have made them
conquerors. In all that shining throng there are none to ascribe salvation to themselves,
as if they had prevailed by their own power and goodness. Nothing is said of what they
have done or suffered; but the burden of every song, the keynote of every anthem, is,
"Salvation to our God . . . and unto the Lamb." Rev. 7:10.

In the presence of the
assembled inhabitants of earth and heaven takes place the final coronation of the Son of
God. And now, invested with supreme majesty and power, the King of kings pronounces
sentence upon the rebels against His government, and executes justice upon those who have
transgressed His law and oppressed His people. Says the prophet of God: "I saw a
great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled
away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of
life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,
according to their works." Rev. 20:11, 12.

As soon as the books of
record are opened, and the eye of Jesus looks upon the wicked, they are conscious of every
sin which they have ever committed. They see just where their feet diverged from the path
of

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purity and holiness, just how far pride and rebellion have carried them in the
violation of the law of God. The seductive temptations which they encouraged by indulgence
in sin, the blessings perverted, the waves of mercy beaten back by the stubborn,
unrepentant heart--all appear as if written in letters of fire.

Panorama
of the Great Conflict

Above the throne is revealed
the cross; and like a panoramic view appear the scenes of Adam's temptation and fall, and
the successive steps in the great plan of redemption. The Saviour's lowly birth; His early
life of simplicity and obedience; His baptism in Jordan; the fast and temptation in the
wilderness; His public ministry, unfolding to men heaven's most precious blessings; the
days crowded with deeds of love and mercy, the nights of prayer and watching in the
solitude of the mountains; the plottings of envy, hate, and malice which repaid His
benefits; the awful mysterious agony in Gethsemane, beneath the crushing weight of the
sins of the whole world; His betrayal into the hands of the murderous mob; the fearful
events of that night of horror: the unresisting prisoner, forsaken by His best-loved
disciples, rudely hurried through the streets of Jerusalem; the Son of God exultingly
displayed before Annas, arraigned in the high priest's palace, in the judgment hall of
Pilate, before the cowardly and cruel Herod, mocked, insulted, tortured, and condemned to
die--all are vividly portrayed.

And now before the swaying
multitude are revealed the final scenes: the patient Sufferer treading the path to
Calvary; the Prince of heaven hanging upon the cross; the haughty priests and the jeering
rabble deriding His expiring agony; the supernatural

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darkness; the heaving earth, the rent
rocks, the open graves, marking the moment when the world's Redeemer yielded up His life.

The awful spectacle appears
just as it was. Satan, his angels, and his subjects have no power to turn from the picture
of their own work. Each actor recalls the part which he performed. Herod, who slew the
innocent children of Bethlehem that he might destroy the King of Israel; the base
Herodias, upon whose guilty soul rests the blood of John the Baptist; the weak,
time-serving Pilate; the mocking soldiers; the priests and rulers and the maddened throng
who cried, "His blood be on us, and on our children"--all behold the enormity of
their guilt. They vainly seek to hide from the divine majesty of His countenance,
outshining the glory of the sun, while the redeemed cast their crowns at the Saviour's
feet, exclaiming, "He died for me!"

Amid the ransomed throng are
the apostles of Christ, the heroic Paul, the ardent Peter, the loved and loving John, and
their truehearted brethren, and with them the vast host of martyrs; while outside the
walls, with every vile and abominable thing, are those by whom they were persecuted,
imprisoned, and slain. There is Nero, that monster of cruelty and vice, beholding the joy
and exaltation of those whom he once tortured, and in whose extremest anguish he found
Satanic delight. His mother is there to witness the result of her own work; to see how the
evil stamp of character transmitted to her son, the passions encouraged and developed by
her influence and example, have borne fruit in crimes that caused the world to shudder.

There are papist priests and
prelates, who claimed to be Christ's ambassadors, yet employed the rack, the

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dungeon, and
the stake to control the consciences of His people. There are the proud pontiffs who
exalted themselves above God and presumed to change the law of the Most High. Those
pretended fathers of the church have an account to render to God from which they would
fain be excused. Too late they are made to see that the Omniscient One is jealous of His
law, and that He will in no wise clear the guilty. They learn now that Christ identifies
His interest with that of His suffering people; and they feel the force of His own words,
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done
it unto Me." Matt. 25:40.

At
the Bar of Judgment

The whole wicked world stand
arraigned at the bar of God, on the charge of high treason against the government of
heaven. They have none to plead their cause; they are without excuse; and the sentence of
eternal death is pronounced against them.

It is now evident to all that
the wages of sin is not noble independence and eternal life, but slavery, ruin, and death.
The wicked see what they have forfeited by their life of rebellion. The far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory was despised when offered them; but how desirable it now
appears. "All this," cries the lost soul, "I might have had, but I chose to
put these things far from me. Oh, strange infatuation! I have exchanged peace, happiness,
and honor for wretchedness, infamy, and despair." All see that their exclusion from
heaven is just. In their lives they declared, We will not have this Jesus to reign over
us.

As if entranced, the wicked
have looked upon the coronation of the Son of God. They see in His hands the tables of the
divine law, the statutes which they

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have despised and transgressed. They witness the
outburst of wonder, rapture, and adoration from the saved; and as the wave of melody
sweeps over the multitudes without the city, all with one voice exclaim, "Marvellous
are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints"
(Rev. 15:3), and falling prostrate, they worship the Prince of life.